


Shatter the Walls for a New Sun

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F, Happy New Year's Evil, Wicked New Year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 02:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13226667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: Mal and Evie on New Year's Eve





	Shatter the Walls for a New Sun

**Author's Note:**

> a request from @ilovescotlandmooreorless on tumblr

Time passed differently in Auradon than it did on The Isle.

On The Isle, hours bled into hours. Days bled into days. Entire months on occasion would pass by without notice. There were no “Mondays” or “Saturdays” on The Isle, there were “that day Mal graffitied the side of the west warehouse” or “the other day when Jay had Carlos in a headlock”.  
  
But in that way, it seemed, The Isle and Auradon were the same. There were no “Mondays” or “Saturdays” in Auradon, there were “the day they served strawberry pancakes for breakfast in the dining hall” or “the other day when Evie churned out three different dresses by the end of the afternoon”. No matter where they were, Mal and her friends measured time by occasions, not numbers.  
  
On The Isle, hours bled into hours. Days bled into days. Entire months on occasion would pass by without notice. Years faded quietly into one another with no pomp, zero circumstance. So after the VKs had just survived making the hurdle over Christmas, imagine their surprise when something new was rolling around before they even had a chance to breathe.   
  
Celebrating and honoring an entire year was simply unheard of to them. What was ever there for them to celebrate? To honor? Auradon appeared to see things differently.

Mal and Evie drew to a stop as they crossed the back lawn on their way to their next class, watching Jane and her student council tie down gold and silver balloons, string banners and tinsel from table to table, twine lights among the treetops and dangle streamers from the branches.  
  
“Whaaat is all this about?” Mal asked, pointing.  
  
Jane, atop a stepladder, took the time to plug in and straighten out one more string of lights before she climbed down and bounded over to the girls.  
  
“It’s for the New Year’s Eve party tomorrow night!” she said, eyes twinkling.  
  
Mal and Evie exchanged a look, eyebrows raised.  
  
“You have a  _party_ for New Year’s Eve too? Isn’t that going a little overboard?” Mal questioned.  
  
“What? No, it’s tradition. Music, and food, and friends, counting down to midnight, setting off the fireworks. It’s not New Year’s Eve without any of it.”  
  
“Don’t you want to ring in the new year?” one of Jane’s student council girls asked. “It’s your chance to say goodbye to The Isle for good and  _really_  get a fresh start here in Auradon.”  
  
Mal and Evie again exchanged a look.  
  
“Yeah, Jane, it’s gonna take more than fireworks and some balloons for us to leave The Isle behind,” Mal dryly said.  
  
“But it’s the spirit of new beginnings,” Jane tried to explain. “Every terrible thing that happened in the past year gets left behind, and you’ve got a completely blank slate for the year ahead.”  
  
“Sounds good on paper, but real life isn’t that simple. Not for us,” Mal gave Evie a little tug on her arm. “Let’s go, E.”  
  
Evie followed right along as they started walking once more, but Mal didn’t notice how her best friend had stayed completely silent through that entire conversation.  
  
“It’s funny listening to these Auradon kids make New Year’s resolutions like they don’t already think they’re the poster children of perfection and goodness,” Mal snickered.  
  
“…I don’t know, M. I think there’s always room for change,” Evie said, keeping her eyes straight ahead on the approaching school building.  
  
“Changing yourself for the better is overrated. Been there, done that, remember?”  
  
Evie shook her head.  
  
“That wasn’t changing yourself for the better, that was changing yourself for others,” she argued. “Always a bad idea.”  
  
“What are you saying? Are  _you_ going to make resolutions?” Mal chuckled, holding the front door open for Evie. “You, out of everyone, are already perfect. You don’t have to change.”  
  
Evie laughed as she smiled, looking over her shoulder and waiting for Mal to catch up to her after she let the door fall shut. Jay ran into the girls as they continued on their way to class, coming up behind them and draping an arm over both their shoulders.  
  
“So how many girls do you think will be lining up for their chance to kiss the Tourney captain tomorrow night?” he asked with a swaggering grin.  
  
Mal grimaced.  
  
“Ew, what are you talking about?”  
  
“Turns out that kissing someone at midnight when the year rolls over is tradition, one of the best ones I’ve ever heard, to be honest.”  
  
“Auradon and its obsession with tradition,” Mal sighed and shrugged out from Jay’s arm, along with Evie.  
  
Jay frowned.  
  
“You two aren’t going to the New Year’s Eve party?”  
  
“I wasn’t going to in the first place, but now that I know there’s kissing involved I’m  _definitely_  steering clear,” Mal emphasized.  
  
Again, she didn’t notice Evie’s silence in the slightest.  
  
By the time school was out for the day, Jane and her posse had tackled all of Auradon Prep. Hallways and staircases were now an explosion of gold, sapphire, and silver tinsel and balloons, and glittering signs reading “2018” were plastered everywhere the VKs looked. That evening, the corridor outside Mal and Evie’s dorm was alight with giggles, scampering footsteps, doors opening and closing, and the general sounds of hustle and bustle. Mal, sitting at the desk, somehow instinctively knew it was the sounds of the girls in their hall running back and forth to each other’s rooms, trying on clothes, seeking advice, and putting the finishing touches on their outfits for the party tomorrow.  
  
“I’m surprised you didn’t have more girls coming to you for dresses,” she said over her shoulder to Evie. “New Year’s Eve is supposed to be the swankiest of the swank.”  
  
“I didn’t think about that,” Evie mused, laying her school outfit for the next day out on her bed. “Honestly, I’m sort of relieved to not be swamped with work at the end of the year.”  
  
“I’m thinking about crashing early tomorrow. Try to at least get  _some_ sleep before they set off those fireworks and ruin my night, you know?” Mal focused back to the history book open in front of her.  
  
Evie, previously eyeing the sweater she was considering, set it down next to Option #2 on the bed and turned to Mal.  
  
“…Hey, M?”  
  
“Hm?”  
  
“I kind of…I want to go to the New Year’s Eve party,” Evie admitted.  
  
Mal’s eyes widened slightly, and she dropped her pen to turn around in her chair.  
  
“You what?”  
  
Evie shrugged, a nervous smile on her lips.  
  
“I mean, come on, it’s a party. An  _Auradon_  party. And say what you want about Auradon, but they know how to celebrate.”  
  
A smile of Mal’s own slowly crept across her face, a wistful one.  
  
“You always did have an eye for parties,” she said.  
  
“But if you’re not going…” Evie tried to put her thoughts into words. “It just won’t be any fun without my best friend, you know?”  
  
Surprisingly, Mal didn’t have to think it over for as long as either of them were expecting.  
  
“…Well, E, you know I’d go with you, but I don’t have anything to wear,” she said.  
  
Evie’s face brightened.  
  
“We have a whole twenty-six hours, Mal. I’m sure we can think of something.”

* * *

There was something in the air when Mal awoke the next morning. Some sort of electric energy, very faint, but still there enough for her to sense.  _Excitement_ , not her own, but that of those around her. “Midnight” was the word on everybody’s lips, the time eagerly watched for on every clock, every phone, every watch. When Mal and Evie again traversed the back lawn on a shortcut to their respective first period classes, Jane and the others were again out in force, this time getting buffet tables set and tableclothed, neatly placing baskets of party favors on each and every picnic table, and being aided by Carlos as they called on him to help set up the sound system. Mal caught sight of him and gently urged Evie along on her own before breaking away to go see him.  
  
“Hi Mal,” he smiled at her, looking up from the speaker he fiddled with when Mal’s shadow fell over him.  
  
“Hey. So, it looks like I’m going to that dumb party tonight after all.”  
  
Carlos stood up, wiping dust off his hands.  
  
“Yeah? That’s great. We’re all going, it would suck if you missed out.”  
  
“Well, the party is like the formal affair to end all formal affairs, and with everything that’s happened these past few months I’m  _really_ dressed out. If I have to put on one more ballgown I swear I’m going to lose it,” Mal explained.  
  
Carlos got the hint.  
  
“Yeah, Mal, I’m sure I have something you can wear. Just swing by my room after school, okay?”  
  
“Okay,” Mal nodded. “Thanks, Carlos.”  
  
“No problem,” he crouched down and got back to work on his speaker. “Hey, what made you change your mind?”  
  
“Evie wants me to be there,” Mal idly said. “I guess a couple hours out wouldn’t hurt.”  
  
“No, it wouldn’t,” Carlos chuckled. “I’ll see you after school.”  
  
Mal looked on ahead, where Evie didn’t heed her insistence to go on for very long before she decided to stop and wait for her.  
  
“I’ll see you.”  
  
In a few feet, she rejoined Evie at her side.  
  
And in a few hours, she joined Evie at her side in the dorm room after stepping out from the bathroom and adjusting the lapels of Carlos’ suit jacket. Mal and Evie incidentally caught sight of each other in their evening wear at the same time, both stopping where they stood and looking on with wide, curious eyes. Mal figured she was used to Evie and her fashion sense by now, but seeing her there in a V-neck gown, so dark blue that it almost appeared to be flecked with purple at certain angles, Mal realized she’d never, ever get used to any of the amazing things Evie tended to throw at her. The dress sparkled like it had captured starlight, and a waterfall of tulle flowed from the back.  
  
“…You look incredible,” Mal breathed.  
  
Mal fit perfectly into one of Carlos’ suits, a dark maroon that, like Evie’s dress, could pass for purple in the right light. Evie slowly stepped forward, straightening Mal’s collar and smoothing out what few wrinkles there were.  
  
“…You look incredible too, M.”  
  
Both girls wore their hair down, waves of blue and purple nestled around their shoulders. Mal smiled, shyly avoiding Evie’s eyes to look at the alarm clock on her nightstand.  
  
“8:10. The party’s already started,” she said.  
  
“Nothing wrong with being fashionably late.”  
  
Together they left the dorm room, clicking off the lights and closing the door behind them.  
  
The evening air was cool, but not uncomfortably so, yet Mal still kept an eye on Evie as they circled around the school in case the need to offer up her jacket arrived. They could hear the music even before they left the building, and now that they’d arrived to the vast expanse of the lawn it blared in full force. Mal couldn’t deny that Jane and the council did a great job, lights shone bright and reflected off tinsel, making everything sparkle and shimmer like fairies were in the air.  
  
“Mal!”   
  
And there was Jane herself, coming over to them and fitting their empty hands with glasses of punch.  
  
“You made it!”  
  
“I did,” Mal nodded, smiling at Evie. “Quite the party you have here.”  
  
“I told you,” Jane beamed. “Glad you came.”  
  
With a wave, she left Mal and Evie alone just as quickly as she’d approached them. The girls looked around the lawn, saw their friends and classmates mingling, chatting, dancing. Mal waited for Evie to wander off a bit, to go mingle and chat for herself, but no such thing happened. Suddenly, Mal found herself thinking back to yesterday and wondering that if when Evie asked her to go to the party, she really meant go  _with her_  to the party. Not that she really objected in the slightest, she’d rather be glued to Evie’s side than sitting alone at a table playing wallflower. So it was together that they chatted, mingled, danced. From Jane, to Doug, to Lonnie, to Ben, they weaved their way through the party as the night went on and touched base with all their friends, listening to eager wishes for the new year and excitement at the minutes ticking down.  
  
“What the heck is this?” Mal asked at the buffet table, staring at the appetizers.  
  
“Bruschetta,” Evie said surely, taking the small piece of toasted bread out of Mal’s fingers. “Try it!”  
  
Mal’s nose crinkled just looking at it.  
  
“Too posh for my tastes,” she shook her head. “I think I’ll just stick with the punch. Jane seems to be pushing it anyway.”  
  
Mal refilled her glass from the big crystal bowl in front of her.  
  
“Are you having fun?” Evie asked, almost worriedly.  
  
“Me? Yeah!” Mal said with a fervent nod, hearing the concern in Evie’s voice right away. “Yeah, E, I am. Everything with you is always fun.”  
  
Mal checked the time, being projected onto the side of the school building. Ten minutes to midnight. Evie’s eyes followed, looking at the time as well. The electricity Mal felt that morning was back, this time growing stronger.  
  
“…I really wanted to make a resolution. Or two, or three, or who knows how many,” Evie suddenly said out of nowhere, laughing sadly.  
  
Mal frowned.  
  
“What kind of resolutions?”  
  
“I don’t know. I really don’t. It just feels like  _something_  needs to change.”  
  
The fun was quickly rushing out of the evening as Mal set her glass down on the closest table and took Evie by the hand, leading her through the crowd to find a little bit of privacy underneath a nearby tree.  
  
“E? What’s wrong?” now Mal’s voice was the one carrying worry.  
  
It took Evie a moment to get her thoughts in order. A very rare occurrence. Her razor sharp mind always had its thoughts in order.  
  
“What Jane’s friend said about leaving The Isle behind, and this new year being our real chance to start over again in Auradon…that wasn’t the first time I’ve thought about it.”  
  
“Well yeah, E, we’ve all thought about it, but it doesn’t mean it’s as easy as all that. Leaving The Isle behind? For one thing, it’s still right there across the bay.”  
  
“…I just don’t want to go into the new year as the old Evie.”  
  
Mal’s eyes widened.  
  
“What’s wrong with the old Evie?” she put her hand on top of her best friend’s. “She’s a genius, and talented, and passionate. Beautiful and strong and walking around with the biggest heart to ever come from The Isle.”  
  
“She’s also often scared and unsure, burying herself in clothes and sketches to distract herself from her problems.”  
  
Mal was so lost.  
  
“Evie, what problems? It isn’t just you, the rest of us are scared and unsure too. But hey, you know, that’s alright. To Auradon, The Isle of the Lost is a scary place. But to you, and me, and the boys,  _Auradon_ is the scary place. Everything is so different here, and even months later none of us still  _totally_  fit in. But I don’t think it means that there’s anything wrong with us, or that we need to change ourselves.”  
  
“But I  _want to!”_ Evie tensely argued, moving her hand to squeeze Mal’s. “I want to change, M!”  
  
Having been there herself, Mal was having vehement internal denials about entertaining Evie’s terrible ideas, but feeling that she wasn’t getting anywhere being the voice of reason, she decided to play along.  
  
“Okay, so what would you change about yourself?” she asked.  
  
Not having formally cemented any resolutions, Evie again had to take an uncharacteristic moment to gather her thoughts.  
  
“…I’d stop looking into the mirror and finding all the tiny little things that need to be fixed,” she softly said. “I’d stop kicking myself over B’s on tests, or getting a question wrong in class.”  
  
Mal didn’t even think it was possible for Evie to get a question wrong in class.  
  
“I try so hard to be perfect that there’s no time for me to be Evie,” she went on sadly. “And you said that you laugh at the Auradon kids for thinking they’re the pictures of perfection, but I think you’re wrong. I think there’s so much happiness and goodness here in Auradon because the people here aren’t perfect, and what’s more, they  _know_ it. Audrey knows she can be self-centered. Doug knows he’s not some all-star athlete. Ben knows he’s a naive and inexperienced king. And you know what, Mal? They’re all okay with it. They still love themselves for who they are.”  
  
“…And you don’t?” Mal’s voice was so small.  
  
Evie sniffled.  
  
“Well who am I, really?” she answered with a shrug.  
  
“…You’re Evie. A fashion designer. The smartest girl in school, and the most beautiful too. Someone who’s very wise and going to go very far one day. You aren’t Evie of The Isle, and you’re not Evie of Auradon either. You’re simply…Evie. My best friend. My first and only.”  
  
Evie felt a sting in her eyes, and wiped it away. The gesture made Mal’s heart squeeze painfully, but she continued.  
  
“And if I had known earlier that you didn’t love your amazing self as much as you should, I wouldn’t have waited so long to tell you that _I_ love you.”  
  
Mal actually felt Evie’s hands turn to ice within hers, long before Evie’s lips parted with a gasp.  
  
“You  _what?”_  
  
Like an echo, the words reverberated back to Mal, and hearing them ring in her own ears made her remember with a start that they carried two entirely different meanings with them.  
  
“I mean as a friend!!” she quickly blurted, the heat in her cheeks a stark contrast to the ice in Evie’s hands. “I love you because you’re the greatest friend I could ever ask for and the most incredible person I know!”  
  
The expression on Evie’s face was completely unreadable just then. Was it relief? Disappointment? Confusion? Uncomfortableness? Mal had no way of telling, and her mouth just continued to run on without her full consent.  
  
“So if your New Year’s resolution is to love yourself exactly as you are, just know you won’t be doing it alone. I’ll be there, helping to teach you how. Because if there’s anyone who knows about loving Evie, it’s me.”  
  
Mal ran her thumb back and forth across Evie’s hand.  
  
“Five minutes!” Ben’s voice rang out from somewhere deep within the party.  
  
The party.  
  
“Five minutes to midnight,” Mal repeated, nodding at everyone out on the lawn. “Do you want to head back over there?”  
  
Evie didn’t seem to hear her.  
  
“…I wonder if five minutes is enough time,” Evie said, seemingly to herself.  
  
“Enough time for what?”  
  
“To change myself before 2018 gets here.”  
  
“Evie, you aren’t Cinderella. Your story doesn’t end when the clock strikes twelve. Your story _begins_  when the clock strikes twelve. 2018 isn’t when you walk around enjoying the new you, it’s when you create the new you. Isn’t that the whole point of a resolution? To carry you through the whole year?”  
  
“…I suppose it is,” Evie thought.  
  
“Four minutes!” Ben called out.  
  
Evie ignored him.  
  
“But there’s still one thing I want to change before 2018 gets here.”  
  
“What thing?” Mal wondered.  
  
“This whole lying thing I’ve got going on. That’s one thing I can leave behind on The Isle, I don’t really need it here in Auradon.”  
  
Mal laughed, unsure.  
  
“Lying about what?” she asked.  
  
“About you.”  
  
“…Me??”  
  
“Three minutes!” this time it was Audrey doing the time check.  
  
For the first time in that conversation, Evie looked Mal right in her eyes.  
  
“You aren’t my best friend, M,” she said, so confidently.  
  
So confident that those six words had just charged right in and pummeled Mal straight in the heart.  
  
“What? …E, you don’t mean that,” Mal again laughed, for complete and total lack of a better response.  
  
“I do,” Evie nodded. “Maybe once upon a time you were, but now…now you’re my light in the dark. A part of me that I never knew was missing, something that I didn’t even know I was looking for.”  
  
Oh, how Mal was so glad this was Auradon Prep, and there was no alcohol at this party. She was having a hard enough time just trying to handle this conversation sober.  
  
“Evie, you aren’t making any sense,” she thought her voice might shake, but she held steady.   
  
Evie gave Mal’s hands a gentle pull, brought her in close.  
  
“You and I shouldn’t start the new year with lies,” Evie said. “We’re leaving all that behind, right here, and right now. So when the new year begins, I don’t want you to go into it thinking you’re my best friend…I want you to go into it knowing you’re the love of my life.”  
  
Time passed differently in Auradon than it did on The Isle.  
  
In Auradon, three minutes passed in the blink of an eye.  
  
“Ten seconds!!” dozens of voices chorused.  
  
“Still have a grudge against Auradon and its traditions?” Evie asked, cheeks pink.  
  
“Seven!”  
  
“…I guess there’s  _one_ that doesn’t seem so bad,” Mal admitted.  
  
“Five!”  
  
And when Mal felt the electricity spark through the air again, it came in full force.   
  
And it was her own.  
  
“Four, three, two,  _one!!”_  
  
Right on the dot, the fireworks flew, whizzing high into the starry night air with a screech and exploding to shower a magical rain of color and light down on Auradon Prep.  
  
“Happy New Year!!” everyone screamed at once, a wonderfully deafening chorus of sheer joy and delight.  
  
Mal would have said it too, but with Evie in her arms and their lips pressed close, she didn’t exactly have the time.  
  
Such time passed differently in Auradon. For Mal, and for Evie, that magic kiss seemed to last a blissful eternity, yet when it was over, the clock still read midnight.  
  
“Mal?” Evie breathed, leaning in again and brushing her lips against Mal’s.  
  
“Evie?” Mal’s eyes wanted to close in anticipation, but she wouldn’t let herself look away from the beautiful face in front of her.  
  
“…I love you too.”  
  
Tradition implied a kiss when the New Year’s Eve clock struck twelve, a kiss on the stroke of midnight to bring in the coming year with love and happiness. Tradition implied  _a_ kiss. Singular.  
  
But Mal and Evie never were too good at following the rules. And underneath a tree of lights, underneath a sky of color, again held tight in one another’s arms and bringing in the year with one magic kiss after another, following the rules was one resolution they were in absolutely no hurry to make.


End file.
